This Time, Mike Francesa Spares Les Moonves

WFAN sports radio host chats with Newsday's Neil Best.

Newsday sports media reporter Neil Best has a lively look today at the recently fractured relationship between CBS Radio management and WFAN powerhouse Mike Francesa.

Francesa is unhappy about the fact that the TV simulcast of his show (on Fox Sports 1 and 2) is sometimes pre-empted, usually by an international soccer game. While he trashes CBS Radio management in general, he made a point of not including head honcho Les Moonves, who was once the subject of Francesa criticism. That in turn led Best to get some good comments from “The Man” himself:

Moonves said he is no stranger to criticism from employees, including Howard Stern and David Letterman. “What makes these the interesting personalities that they are is it’s important to take shots at ‘The Man,'” he said. “It just sort of goes with the territory.”

“Howard Stern went on the David Letterman show when they were both working for me wearing a picture of me and my wife and underneath it said, ‘I hate Les Moonves’ on his T-shirt. It doesn’t get much worse than that.”

Towards the end of the Newsday article, Francesa praises the network president and CEO for the way the latter handled both his 2007 criticism of Don Imus’ firing and some contract negotiations the following year. And we’re not sure if this is a coincidence, but in the wake of the newspaper article, its author tweeted the following, below. Guess that goes with the territory, too.